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“The greatest thing you'll ever learn is to love and be loved, just to love and be loved.” - Eden Ahbez

We all have a desire and need to feel love for ourselves, for a significant other, and to be loved in return. This inherent need is part of just being human, and the need for acceptance, touch and empathy is a basic right of just being alive. From a spiritual or metaphysical persperctive, we’re always in relationship with something – ourselves with our feelings and thoughts, our environment, Nature, and other people. There can be growth when spending time in solitude, following a spiritual practice or using the tools of self-inquiry or meditation to look deeper within. This often is cyclical, and we eventually our curiosity and desire for connection drives us to seek the companionship.

Recently I invited people on my mailing list and on social media to participate in a two-fold survey. There were two areas I wanted feedback on: spirituality, spiritual practices and spiritual or shamanic “emergence.”, and intimate relationships and partnering, and the responses to this category were very revealing for me.

The number one challenge-issue-fear was around trust. Over 90% of the respondents cited this factor above all else, including communication, cooperation, or sexual intimacy issues. Trusting the other or one’s own motivations, even surrendering to love itself and all the vulnerability it demands is demands that we deal with our own anxieties, insecurities and woundings from past dissapointments, betrayals or abuse. Some of the respondents also cited difficulties with communication, fears of losing oneself in the other, or experiencing the polarity of abandonment or suffocation.

Our way of relating and being in relationship is predicated on the models we learned through our upbringing and the messages from our cultures. These have conditioned our behaviours in how we connect and relate at any age. Sometimes the memories in our soul, or in our parent’s unhealed events with their upbringing, brings us into contact with unhealthy patterns. Co-dependency, broken attachments with one parent or another can cause to unconsciously attract the exact opposite situations that we’re really desiring.

My direct experiences and observations during the last 10 years or so tells me that many of these patterns and beliefs, as well as our relationships themselves, are under pressure to change. There are many more people who are becoming weary with any superficiality in their relationships and love connections, and I’ve seen a profound increase in the interest in soulmate, soul-based partnerships. There’s also a growing awareness of the phenomenon of twin flames and twin souls. This is becoming an area of interest that isn’t just about finding the perfect partner – it has broader spiritual implications and potentials. Just Google these terms and conduct your own research if you’re curious.I would also add to this discourse the language and science of astrology which I see as a big part of the changes in relationship these days.

The end of the Mayan Calendar in 2012 ushered in the first of the Uranus-Pluto Squares. Uranus entered the sign of Aries in March, 2011, the sign of the warrior and being more individualized and independent. Between June 2012 and March of 2015 there were 7]seven exact contacts through Pluto and Uranus being in a square aspect, which is Mastery through Challenge. I personally went through a deep spiritual transformation via the disintegration of a long-term partnership and a rebirth into envisioning a newer and more egalitarian partnership model and opportunity.

The bottom line here is that so many of the issues coming up within relationships now are asking us to grow and let go of many of our dysfunctional ways of being so that we can actually come in to a real and experiential equality with those we are in closest resonance with, and really explore conscious relating and mutually supportive and creative ways for helping each other to express our deepest gifts for the benefits of others, and manifest our desires and Soul Mission.

My orientation is that our spirituality, creativity, sensitivity and sexuality are all intertwined in this transformative process. Once we have grounded fully within ourselves without shame or guilt, then our vibration changes and we begin to attract those who will mirror with us in love, harmony, abundance, and yes, in complete trust. It is also the foundation for building a fair and equitable economic system, sustainable communities, and a healthy relationship with our home planet.

If you would like to explore more about my approach to attracting and cocreating conscious relationships full of trust and deeper potential for intimacy, then I would like invite you to schedule a Discovery Call with me. I’d love to assist you in letting go of past limitations and embrace a path of happiness and fulillment. Simply click here to go to the scheduling page on my website, or contact me directly via the email of phone info below.

Watch for next week’s installment where I’ll share with you some approaches and techniques for addressing the issues and challenges you may have been going through, and some ideas on how to create more “Heart and Soul” in your relationship life.

"In true love, happiness is not an individual matter. There is no distinction between the one who loves and the one who is loved. Your suffering is my suffering; my happiness is your happiness. Lover and beloved are one." ~Thich Naht Hanh

The bookend to the Solar Eclipse of March 8th-9th will arrive tomorrow at 12:01pm GMT. This is a partial or annular Lunar Eclipse of the Full Moon, with the Sun at 3 degrees 17 minutes of Aries, and the Moon opposite at 3 degrees 17 minutes of Libra. As I recounted in my Sunday blog, “Creative Chaos”, there are strong connections to what happened six months ago during the Solar and Lunar Eclipses of September 2015. You can read or re-read that post here. Suffice it to say that this is a fundamental reset of the “game”, and it will not only set the tone for the next six months, till the eclipses of September 2016, but quite conceivably for many months beyond that juncture. Time will tell, as it always does.

Into the Way Back Machine!

I’ve been looking back to when there were any lunations (New Moons, Full Moons) or eclipses in Aries and Libra between 2011 and 2013. I selected 2011, because Uranus entered the sign of Aries on March 11th, 2011…the day of the massive temblor and tsunami that devastated Sendai province in northeastern Japan. I found two charts, one in March of 2012 and another one also in March of 2013 that are very close to the one this is coming up this Wednesday, and is also strongly connected to the “Blood Moon” Lunar Eclipse of September 28th, 2015. In all of the four charts the Sun and Moon are tightly arranged between 2 degrees and 7 degrees of these two signs. I’ve included them with the chart for our Lunar Eclipse tomorrow at the end of this blog.

Finally, the last blast from the past to reveal was that there was a Lunar Eclipse at almost the exact same degrees of Aries-Libra as the next one this Wednesday (chart below as well). If you can reel in the years and go back to March 24th,1997, reflect on what was happening for you at that time, it may put a huge spotlight of understanding on your current situation, and provide you with the wisdom and courage to act in accordance with your Inner Truth.

"With Aries-Libra, relating is the name of the game. The challenge is how do we balance the needs or desires of the Self (Mars-Masculine) with the needs and desires of The Other (Venus-Feminine)? The seemingly eternal dance between these two forces makes for a lot of interesting poetry, music, art, fables…and tragedies."​

Oh, You Again…”

Simply stated, Aries is all about the Self…”I Am.” Equally simple is that Libra is about “The Other.” There is always a relationship happening in everything…throughout the Cosmos, from the subatomic level to the galaxies themselves. Some physicists theorize that there are bonds and bleedthroughs between parallel Universes. Anyway, the Aries-Libra polarity represents the astrological version of The Lovers card in the Tarot, or the Sacred Marriage from the mystery schools. It manifests from the strictly personal level to the Universal Level. Beyond the duality of form, they are Divine Principles that emanate into all manifest forms, and yet are completely fused in the Absolute and are completely indivisible. That’s big supra-metaphysical theorising on my part, but feels right as a model.

With Aries-Libra, relating is the name of the game. The challenge is how do we balance the needs or desires of the Self (Mars-Masculine) with the needs and desires of The Other (Venus-Feminine)? The seemingly eternal dance between these two forces makes for a lot of interesting poetry, music, art, fables…and tragedies. From an evolutionary astrological perspective for the past four years we have been on a revolutionary road of dismantling and reforming our psyches through the uncomfortable crucible of intimate and challenging relationships, and all of them have been steeped in a shamanic unravelling and healing of our relationship karma. When I use the word “karma”, I’d like for you to reference that word in a new way. Think “unconscious patterns based on equally hidden vows or beliefs”. Throughout time and space, we have met ourselves again and again with many of our “other selves” and have sought to balance the eternal dance that is ultimately about realising Love as a state or condition of being.

"Perhaps the age of digital love is about to have a rude awakening, or perhaps we are awakening to the rudeness of digital socialization."

Is there a manual for this thing?

Okay, it hasn’t been easy, and it’s not a process that is culminating with Wednesday’s latest edition of Aries-Libra lunations/eclipses. I don’t have a crystal ball, or a road map, or even a factory issued user’s manual, but I do sense that this event on Wednesday may be a gateway to the final purification of eons of relationship trauma and drama. At least that’s what my instincts are saying just now. We are being given an evolutionary push to change our beliefs, and more importantly, our understanding about the purpose and potentials of human intimacy and conscious partnerships. It can be sometimes difficult to discern, but almost every challenge our species now faces, from how we care for ourselves or look after each other, to how we reinvent and reimagine our economic, political, scientific and societal structures… to how we end our mistreatment of the planet and her resources, hinges on how much we trust in ourselves and the ones we love the most.

We pump the message that we need to love ourselves, and yet we are starving for connection. In his cynical and disenfranchised tone, Elliot, the hacker in the new television drama “Mr Robot”, bemoans the current state of human love: “[…is it because we’re] spamming with our running commentary of bullshit masquerading as insight, our social media faking as intimacy?” Perhaps the age of digital love is about to have a rude awakening, or perhaps we are awakening to the rudeness of digital socialization.

"I feel that real spiritual love, one that is rooted in mutual respect and deep honesty, is extremely romantic. It gives us that sense of “coming home” that we all long for…and know we deserve."

The Rest of the Story

While the foreground is the Sun and the Moon in the Lunar Eclipse, the background cast is equally important. The day after the Eclipse Saturn will station retrograde in Sagittarius. He will move direct on August 14th at 9 degrees of Sag, and be very close to Mars at 5 Sagittarius. The upcoming Mars retrograde in Sagittarius and Scorpio is a story in and of itself, so I will save that for an April post.

On the day of the Eclipse Saturn will be in a stressful T-Square with Venus and Neptune in Pisces, and retrograde Jupiter in Virgo. I feel that having this happen just before Saturn goes into inward (retrograde) motion is a phase of reviewing and integrating the energies and lessons of all the previous eclipses, and indeed, or all the Aries-Libra contacts of the past four years. It’s a time for introspection, and it won’t work to be doing hard-nosed analysing (Virgo) about matters of the heart and soul. The Venus-Neptune conjunction will be the main energy here…asking us to be compassionate and forgiving, and to also re-image a Higher aspect of romantic and intimate Love. I use the word romance not in a story-book way, but in a way to celebrate the “lift” that we experience with romantic love. I feel that real spiritual love, one that is rooted in mutual respect and deep honesty, is extremely romantic. It gives us that sense of “coming home” that we all long for…and know we deserve. I highly recommend this amazing video clip to get a better feel for what my poor words are trying to express. True Love and the Four Elements of Love – Thich Nhat Hanh. The first seven minutes carries the nugget of the message.

Mars in Sagittarius will be trine the Sun and is sextile to the Moon. This adds a strong but egalitarian tone of asking that we tell the Truth…to ourselves and whomever we’re currently partnered with. Even if we are not with a significant other, our intention towards emanating compassion and love to those we are in connection with, in whatever form, will still have a potent effect. Ending conflict both from within and towards others is the idea. Mercury will be conjoined to the Sun as well, so there may be an impulsiveness to ask questions in a very rapid-fire style, like a special interrogator questioning a suspect in a crime. Uncomfortable but necessary truths may suddenly come to light. The juxtaposition between Mars and Mercury will be daunting, and a bit paradoxical. You may be thinking, "Do I stick to the hard facts only, or do I allow leeway for compassionate understanding?" I suppose the answer to that will depend on what type of information is unearthed. If there is no longer any resonance with your current situation, then this eclipse may signal that it’s time to move on and open to a higher more resonant partnership that is based on true love, transparency and equality.

The asteroid goddess Juno is retrograde (inverted) in Scorpio, and will be in a harmonious flow with Venus and Neptune. The need for passion within our partnering is denoted by this placement. Juno typically is associated with the traditions of marriage, but in Scorpio, marriage is elevated to a sacrament through passion and sexuality. There can be no true intimacy without being naked in body and soul to the Beloved. This is soul Tantra, and is something we all possess, but has been civilised out of us and forgotten. Tantric practices were invented to reawaken us to the primal truth that is in the divine nature within our bodily forms. Ecstasy is a natural state that exists when we are in harmony with Nature, with the Goddess.

"We all deserve the love that we give away, and the love that we receive. The union of hearts will be a potent power for changing the course of the future. Give freely…it all comes back to you in some way, and at some time."

The Next Steps

Between now and the next set of eclipses in September I feel that it will be a time of greater movement and greater clarity in our understanding of ourselves, of others and what our hearts and souls truly desire to create in this world. Everything is connected, and the arena of our interpersonal relationships echoes throughout the human and planetary construct. If we truly wish to have a different future, then the ghosts of our past must be confronted and lovingly and empathically embraced. We cannot cure prior wounding without acknowledging our held emotions and deep longings. The relationship issues we had with our parents are reflections of all of our previous bonding experiences with each other as lovers, spouses, siblings, parents or even just workmates and friends. To change the story of our personal and collective past is to alter the future.

We have the potential to live the life of our dreams. I suggest that those dreams include others in many ways. To balance our needs with the greater needs of our entire species is the way forward. Everyone has a right to clean water, good food, warm shelter, comfortable clothing and personal safety. And everyone needs closeness, affection, recognition and love. Dr. Dean Ornish’s book, “Love and Survival” is a wonderful testament to the power of connection and what it means to be fully human. I recommend it to you as one of many potential guides to how we can imagine and create new and sacred ways of relationship, ways that don’t cause us to fall back into martyrdom or self-effacement. More importantly, we can end the cycle of heartache and heartbreak that is at the core of our spiritual wounding…the false sense that we are separate from our Source, and from each other.

Move forward into the sacred marriage with your inner Beloved and invite that Beloved into your purpose for being here on this planet at this time. Let your deepest dreams and yearnings be expressed. Begin with yourself, then with your beloved, then in communion with others of your “tribe”, then in wider community. It grows exponentially when we choose love, collaboration and cooperation.

We all deserve the love that we give away, and the love that we receive. The union of hearts will be a potent power for changing the course of the future. Give freely…it all comes back to you in some way, and at some time.

With Love,Isaac

I specialize in mentoring and coaching for singles and couples in the arenas of relationship and self care. I love to work with people and give them the tools they most need to navigate these times and to create more satisfying experiences in their lives. For more information and to make an appointment for a FREE Discovery call, just click ﻿here﻿.

I am morphing into a heretical evolutionary astrologer. In other words, with a few future exceptions, I will be blogging less about lunar events, eclipses, etc. There are a number of reasons for this, which I’ll cover in a different series of blogs that will be coming up in the next few weeks, but suffice it to say that as an evolutionary, or soul-based, astrologer, it’s time to evolve! Perhaps the term “pirate astrologer” might suit. Hmm…star larceny might not work. Now that’s out of the way, time to focus on this week’s festivities.

There’s a lovely being whose been messaging me for a week or so now, asking “when will things settle down?” My pat answer to her, and others, is “not in the foreseeable future.” Today is a good example. It’s a New Moon in Libra, and yes, there is a HUGE amount of energy pressing down on all of us regarding relationships; our relationship with Self, with others, or a significant (and possibly difficult) “other.” With each passing day, it appears that external and internal forces are coaxing, if not downright pushing us to make decisions…to choose a path, a new direction or commitment. And this is indeed what is occurring, and will continue to occur with increasing intensity. (The chart is below, and the exact moment of the New Moon is 1:05BST, 12:05GMT, October 13th. It occurs on October 12th in North and South America.)

When is it going to settle down? I’ve got no idea, and my advice is don’t look for some sort of external reprieve to suddenly return you, me or the rest of the world to some somnambulistic version of our previous worldly experience (think the Eisenhower years of the 1950’s, or Marty McFly’s lifestyle in “Back to the Future” during the 1980’s). It’s not going to morph suddenly into a future Utopia either (remember 2012?). Nobody is going to get to sleepwalk through the next decade or so, and I’ll stake my astrological reputation on it. Now, before you shut down and call me a negativist and accuse me of fear-mongering, I’d just like to ask you to look at how positive these times and the potential future times can be if we are stimulated, prodded, pushed and otherwise compelled to evolve out of our dysfunctional beliefs, habits and general brainwashing about how things are and how they’re supposed to be. The time for compromising your values or soul-instincts in order to please others and just get along in the Matrix is becoming more untenable with each transit.

This New Moon is only part of the energy that is ripping away the veils from our eyes. It’s activated and activating Uranus in Aries (retrograde) and that guy is traveling in close proximity with his feminine counterpart, the dwarf planet Eris. Eris is like a biker chick that’s looking to disturb your civilised sensibilities. The other activation is the inconjunct (tension) between the New Moon and Chiron retrograde in Pisces. This placement will ask all of us what our deepest despairs, losses and childhood wounds have been, and we will need to feel them, not intellectualize them. No room in the new paradigm for our unhealed inner child baggage. To be soft, yielding and compassionate with ourselves as we invite these soul parts back into the fold is the only way through the tension. It could get very edgy and a bit messy…let it do that. Diplomacy may be in short supply, as there are sudden shocks and insights regarding significant others that may upset your previous assumptions.

Venus and Saturn are the Razor’s Edge Gang today and over the next few days. In a close and tense square to one another, Venus demands a high level of ethics in Virgo…a purity of intent and purpose, while Saturn in Sagittarius is like a prosecuting attorney, pushing the defendant (you, other, or both) to come clean with the truth. Hear that sound? That’s because the veil of illusion and denial getting ripped apart.

Have a box of Kleenex nearby at all times.

Now on to the next order of business, which is about Jupiter and Venus conjunct in Virgo, and which will be in a trine Pluto in Capricorn on October 16th. Perhaps it’s time to watch the markets again.

Business as usual is going to also be undergoing the gravitational crunch over the next few months/years. The old models will be disintegrating at a more accelerated pace. Our economic model is currently fueled by two factors – greed or fear. There’s an astrological art known as mundane astrology that has been tracking trends in the financial and business world since before the last crash in 2008, and they were mostly right about that one happening. Now these astrologers are sounding the alarm bells that we may be headed into another not-so-nice situation, mainly because the fundamentals that caused the downturn in 2008 have never been addressed. In case you think I’m making this stuff up, take a moment to look at some of the headlines. Investors are paying attention...especially to the situation in China. This is only one article, but many governments and financial institutions are getting nervous, or creating the nervousness. Read more about it here.

Can our business model be reformed? For a number of reasons it’s very doubtful. I remember in the 90’s that some people who were awakening spiritually thought it would be possible to hang out in the corporate arena and effect change from the inside out. As former U.S. President Jimmy Carter discovered the hard way, it was easier to campaign on the promise to completely reform the U.S Federal governmental bureaucracy than it was to actually do it. And, as Buckminster Fuller recommended, we will need to invent something new and better to take the place of hyper-capitalism and neo-liberal policies (austerity is good for you!). You probably sense that all is not well with our financial and economic systems, and this is another reason the anxiety is at an all-time high. Perhaps higher than the Dow Jones Index on the Wall Street! The whole planet is operating from a place of cortisol poisoning. Don’t try to ignore it, because it’s not going to go away until we face facts and the truth of our illusions (Virgo-Sagittarius).

One of the primary energies this week is to download your own Soul Program. This will, by its very nature, not be what your mind will think it might be. Your “mission” is unique to you, and, it is integral with everyone else’s mission in one sense or another. You might find yourself outside of the mainstream, and wonder where your tribe/family/allies are hiding out. You may still try to operate within the “system” and it will work for the time being, until it no longer feeds your soul. One thing to assiduously avoid in any case is the idea of spiritual significance. In other words, you and your being here is no more or less important than another soul’s mission or purpose. Cooperation will have to replace the old ideas of competition. You just need to ask for it and cooperate with it, without trying to define it...for now anyway.

It would also be useful to examine some of our unconscious language we utilize in the marketplace and our lives. Here’s one example of what I’m talking about.

For all of us who are in the helping professions, life coaches, therapists, healers, bodyworkers and so forth, I’d recommend ditching the overused and well-worn term “client”. The origin of the word “client” is as follows:

Origin of client:Old French ; from Classical Latin cliens, follower, retainer ; from Indo-European base an unverified form klei-, to lean, as in Classical Latin clinare (see incline); basic sense, “one leaning on another (for protection)”Read more at http://www.yourdictionary.com/client#gJat6GGMGuD7eVWp.99

According to one of the Merriam -Webster’s Dictionary references, a client as “a person who engages the professional services of another; also: “patron, customer”. But get this, the first definition is “dependent.”

A health coach I know told me that she likes to think of those that come to her that she’s a professional friend for them. That’s a new clarity in the business relationship…being there as a friend!

It’s so ironic. We are all striving to become more self-actualized and self-sufficient, and at the same time we run the risk of becoming dependent on our “clients” and they become dependent on us. The therapeutic model needs an upgrade too. I look around and am amazed that our culture now demands so much of us, and a lot of folks are finding it harder and harder just to keep up. A larger swath of the population than ever before is in therapy, or on medication…or needs to be. Coaching and therapies are proliferating exponentially, and at the same time things are still getting crazier. Just noticing, and wondering if there’s something we’re missing in the equation.

I feel that what most of us really want is quite basic, and very human. We want to feel good!!

We all are Love, and crave love. Finding and feeling acceptance with one another is giving voice to love. To be listened to, seen and deeply understood is love in action. To be enfolded, and to be cherished…just for being human is Love demonstrated. To feel secure in our intimacies, in our strengths and in our vulnerabilities is Love as Protector. To just feel what it would be like without so much striving, stress and worry would be welcome. Should not Life be more than jumping from one stress management and coping mechanism to another? That in itself produces more stress…trying to find things to reduce stress. Do we have to reach the breaking point in order to change? We are so imaginative, inventive and creative…gifts that beg to be made manifest will begin to emerge from the crucible of change, the ripping of the veil. Welcome to the new normal.

Perhaps the planetary eco-emergency is something that will actually propel humanity into sanity again. I don’t know for sure, but we obviously need to behave differently if we, and most of the other species on this world, are to do more than survive. To thrive will require a spiritual renaissance, but I feel it will be more a shamanic and neo-pagan movement than something etherically spiritual, aka the "New Age." Empty yourself of all that you thought you knew…beginner’s mind is required today, tomorrow, and for the next millennia.

I recommend more a return to miracle-mindedness. “A miracle is something that looks impossible, but happens anyway.” That little gem was delivered by a character named Griffin (picture above) in the film “Men in Black 3”. I like it a lot! What we may be on the threshold of discovering is how we can integrate the practical and the magical, the pragmatic and the shamanic. It certainly sounds and looks a whole lot more sustainable and fun than the old model!

Let the veil fall from your eyes, or rip it away, and behold yourself new and renewed. You will see things that have been hidden, that have tranced you out, or numbed you from your true identity. Allow the illusions to crumble, let the child within heal, and may your warrior/lover arise from the ashes of the old order. It’s a New Moon…it’s a new day…it’s a new world, if you want it.

Sept. 11th, 2015 The Goddess is moving. No, not to a new house or anything that mundane, but She is shaking and moving. The energy shifts are palpable, and more and more folks are chipping in with reports of personal anomalous events of all types.It seems that the artificial electro-magnetic grid is eroding, showing signs of being under strain, and the 1% of the 1% also getting a bit nervous and nervy…about us. So, they have to ramp up the countermeasures you know…keep the public order and all that. Here in Ireland the Garda (national police) are not granting permits for anti-austerity protestors to go door to door soliciting for donations because they say the funds will be used in future protests to create public order offences. Anyone remember the movie “Minority Report” with Tom Cruise? This is the Celtic version of PreCrime at work. You ARE guilty for what you haven’t even thought about doing…yet. Similar things have happened and are happening globally. With next year’s squares between Saturn in Sagittarius and Neptune in Pisces, discovering what the truth is about anything will be like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall. Conversely, shocking revelations will also be occurring…the result of the Law of Unintended Consequences. At the least it will be entertaining. The American author Tom Robbins once wrote that “every big front has a big back.” What he meant is that everything has a counterpoint, a mirror image in reverse. So, the more light there is, the bigger the appearance of the shadow…or something like that. As we move closer towards the end of Saturn’s transit in Scorpio, sandwiched solidly between two eclipses, there may be some really weird stuff manifesting. As “they” say, forewarned is forearmed. It is also a fabulous opportunity to touch the realm of synchronicity and to shift into a new ways of navigating the Now…and that is what I wish to focus on in this brief essay. This almost total Solar Eclipse at 20 degrees of Virgo will take place at 7:41BST, 6:41UT in London this Sunday, September 13th (see chart below). Simultaneously Mercury will be at 14 Libra, and square to Pluto in Capricorn. The Eclipse will oppose Chiron in Pisces, and be inconjunct to Uranus in Aries. Saturn at 29 Scorpio will be felt as it touches the Nodes at 1 degree, 25 minutes of Aries-Libra.This combination has the potential for a number of blessings and opportunities. First, emotions may run rampant, but consider it a flash clearing and don’t identify with it to the point of “processing” everything. Simply witness and love each wave that happens. Secondly, with Mercury about to station retrograde (Sept.17th) in Libra, Freudian slips may be quite common.Loose lips may sink some ships, but the psychic debris of secrets or hidden things revealed are necessary whether within our interpersonal interactions in friendships and partnerships, or those of a larger narrative, i.e., the dialogue between leaders or nations. Chiron provokes the healing touch…Saturn and Pluto dredge up the secrets or hidden things. The Sun-Moon in Virgo will demand a purging in order to establish a pragmatic and purifying action to all that needs preserving, and all that needs purging.

Sophia the Wisdom Goddess

Virgo is the realm of The Goddess, the Divine Feminine and Sophia Herself (see image). The Vestal Virgins in the ancient world of the mystery schools and civilisations in the Levant were devoted to the purification rituals devoted to the Goddess that cleansed the psyches of individuals and whole societies. The Mystery School network provided the framework within which each culture could grow and flourish in harmony with the natural world and live harmoniously with other cultures. Wisdom is Sophia’s name, and this wisdom included the human body, emotions and the divine gift of “epinoia” or imagination. Pleasure was seen as restorative. Ecstasy was the way of communing with Nature and the Feminine…Wisdom was the result. For almost a thousand years, through the rise and fall of empires, the Guiding Light was nurtured and protected by priestesses and priests of the Goddess in sacred groves, from the British Isles to the Near East and India. No single aspect of human life was left out of consideration and Pagan Europe and the Near East survived and prospered for a very long time…until the rise of Christianity. But, that’s another part of the story. Chiron is an archetype from the pagan world, and his qualities align with Virgo and the 6th house and he is always seeking to serve and heal, to cleanse and renew, and to assist us in proceeding with our mission. The opposition of the Eclipse with Chiron is asking us to confront our pain, and to gain the gift that it can give us, that will empower us to move forward. New Moons are new beginnings, but the time between the last Full Moon and now constitutes the Waning, the letting go time. One of the best types of practices for the waning period is a burning ritual. Writing down what no longer serves you and consciously gifting it to the flames is one option. Consider it a clean break with what has been. No worries…you still possess the memories, but they no longer will possess you. You can determine what is “lit up” in your birth chart by this eclipse by using www.astro.com to view and print your natal chart. You’ll need your birth time, so check that out beforehand. Create a free account and then plug in the details of your nativity. Look for anything around 20 degrees of Pisces, Virgo, Sagittarius and Gemini. Look for any planet or angle (Ascendent, Descendent, Midheaven or IC) that is at or within 2 degrees of the Eclipse point. The degree of Mercury and Pluto is sensitive as well, 14 degrees of Libra and Capricorn (and Aries and Cancer). If you feel drawn to find out more and require some mentoring about the two eclipses (September 27-28 is the Total Lunar Eclipse) and Mercury Retrograde, consider getting a Transit Reading with me. More information can be found by clicking here.

"You have an air of destiny about you..."

The Energy Times: Just got some more data from other subscribers, and there are more things happening within my observational range that’s also indicative of intense shifts. Power outages, computers and cell phones misbehaving, and in a recent extreme case, a Boeing 777 that was ready for take-off had both engines spontaneously catch on fire at McCarran airport in Las Vegas a few days ago. Passengers had to take selfies and grab hand luggage before evacuating the aircraft. Priceless moments to be shared back home apparently. Some folks feel that the slow down on the Internet is due to too much traffic, too much monitoring and data mining (Google, you have been named) and the Grid’s reaction to solar-induced geomagnetic storms. I vote for “all of the above”. Personally, I removed Google Chrome as a browser on my laptop and reverted to Firefox. Much faster response times, and a lot of the glitches I’ve experienced the last two months have vanished. I think hacking into browsers is on the increase too, as I encountered an attack yesterday and my antivirus and malware packages uninstalled Firefox as part of the quarantine and removal solution. Fortunately when I reinstalled it, all of my bookmarks were saved. The sensitive time ahead is between the two eclipses. The Total Lunar Eclipse on September 27th-28th, the so-called "supermoon" Blood eclipse, will be a whopper. Will preview that the week after next, around the 20th or 21st of September. Before that we have Saturn leaving Scorpio on the 18th of September here in Europe, the 17th in the N. America, and I may post a post-mortem on it a few days afterwards, plus speak about the Autumnal Equinox. Need to see what manifests first. Speaking of manifestations... From an astrologer’s perspective manifestation is expressed through Transits. Whatever is unconscious or unacknowledged will appear in the scenery to awaken us, to call attention to itself. Carl Jung called it destiny. The ancients called it Fate. Whatever you or I call it, it is the engine of Creation, because all thought has a single Origin. So this time and the times to follow may indeed feel “fated”, as if you are experiencing the Dreamtime as a participant and a Witness. That may be our role…each one of us a unique emissary of Spirit, the Original Thinker, so to speak. If it feels destined, it may be because our Soul chose it long before our ego decided upon it. Choice and free will...or is it fate? I feel that these perennial questions will attract more Wisdom to us in the near future. In the meantime, your Destiny is calling to you. With Love, IsaacP.S. Today is the 14th Anniversary of 9/11. The controversy is far from ended on this one. For something interesting to watch, I recommend this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufWggCESyDg

“If you cannot directly face your sexuality, you will never discover your true spirituality.” - From the Taoist text “The Bamboo Immortal” c.1748.* The river of Life has, and is, creating a torrent of change in my own personal universe. Since publishing Part 2 of “Finding Love – The Purpose of Attraction” on July 14th, I had originally titled the third part of this series as “Sexual Healing, Eros and Heart Therapy”. But now I’m having a laugh…for Life does intrude when you’re making other plans. Obviously the times have changed since mid-July, and so has the title. I too have changed, and so have my personal circumstances. Nonetheless, the way is clearer within and without to bring this particular series of articles to a close. We all are looking for love and a sense of belonging and security, and so seldom do we find it. Or when we think we’ve found it, something always seems to be missing or it all goes awry. We are now being exhorted almost daily to love ourselves instead of looking outside for fulfilment or happiness in our relationships. “If only I were more spiritually-minded, and more self-sufficient, or loved myself more, I would be happier…”, or so the spiel goes.

The very innate human desire and longing for meaningful connection with not only other humans, but also with non-human life and the wider Universe is at the core of our souls and awareness. We are inherently capable of behaving in a kindly and loving way, so why is happiness and the experience of love that we know we should experience seem so elusive? To deeply surrender to Love that occurs in a seemingly serendipitous way requires a certain degree of ego death and a temporary relinquishing of our usually strong sense of self-identification, and that can cause big problems. Fear enters the picture. Projection replaces perception, and whoever has the most ‘self’ to lose will tend to retreat hastily back into the safety of the familiar. A dear friend and professional therapist describes this place as the abode of “comfortable uncomfortableness”. Then, when the coast is clear, these souls will come out of their shell and gradually wonder what it was that may have happened, followed by a sense of grieving or relief. Usually, the searching for ‘it’ starts all over at some point in the future. Now this is an oversimplification of the nature of Love, and I don’t mean to imply that all encounters with Love that have a capital “L” are predicated on meeting one’s soul mate or twin soul. However, this notion cannot be dismissed entirely and nor should it be held up as the only way that any human being can come in contact with Love or Eros as part of The Mystery. Indeed, many have touched the face of Love, or shall I say been touched by it, during some of the most ordinary moments one could imagine. Moments in Nature or just staring at the stars in the night sky can evoke a sense of awe that is a prerequisite for entering into the sublime state that the Mystery of Love offers. We all long for that which will take us out of our small selves, and expand us into something greater than our sense of “I”, and we do sometimes desire it to be a shared experience with another human being. This is where real poetry comes from. And the “Other” in song, prose and poetry is just another “you” after all. Though some may view the human fascination and need for deep bonding as co-dependent, I prefer to recognize in it the core of interdependence that underscores and validates the very web of Life. “The Sin of Original Guilt” I coined the above term for a chapter in my book “What Really Matters: A Guide for Spiritual Awakening” in 2007. It means something different to me now, as I’ve been shedding many belief systems over the past year. A good example of this turn of phrase is covered in Wilhelm Reich’s book “The Function of the Orgasm”, which wasn’t just about the potential for human beings to realize and accept their sexuality and capacity for pleasure. It was a vivid and impassioned condemnation of salvation-based religions and the patriarchal notions that gave birth to it. He equates the deliberate suppression of our sensuality as the main cause for the rise and existence of fascist tendencies and movements. To believe, even in the slightest, that we were ‘born into sin’ is to make a grave error that ends only in paroxysms of shame and guilt. We feel like victims of circumstance, which is not a very healthy state of affairs. Even worse, we then find that we are now separate from our own natures and Nature itself.

As a species, we seem to have inherited a manipulative program, a deception that colours how we perceive ourselves and our relationship to love, to each other, and to the Life Force itself. Think about it; if you have to be ‘commanded’ to love, as we are told in Christianity, then why? When you love someone or something, you are just responding to what love is and does. You don’t need commandments, or threats of punishment, in order to make you a good and loving person. So, the trick of shame and guilt that has been handed down to us for over seventy generations has done immense damage, to our psyches, to other humans and life forms, and it is now this distortion threatens the very biosphere itself. So, how do we heal ourselves…how do we end the suffering, depression, violence and confusion?“Return to the Garden”“Religion protects man, so long as its foundations are not revealed.” - Rene Girard, “Violence and the Sacred” A major part of our growth will be to learn what it means to love ourselves. That cannot happen if we still are invested in the false story of humanity, about its so-called “Fall” and it’s Redemption through some non-human extra-terrestrial means. We must reforge our connection to the planetary sentience of Gaia, through Nature, and refute the doctrine of the victim-perpetrator bond that is at the core of redeemer-based religions. Our sexual and spiritual healing must come from more than immersion in Tantric practices, techniques and philosophies, as these are still human inventions that arose out of a culture steeped in patriarchy-based spirituality, and which carries the seed of the belief that we must transcend the flesh in order to realize our inherent divinity. The body is the Soul, expressed.

In terms of so-called ‘modern’ or contemporary spirituality, there have been some recent but minute shifts away from transcendental philosophies that regard Nature, the physical body and material world as impediments to self-realization and holistic living. The New Age, with its obsession on ascension and merging into some elevated super-human state of mastery, misses the mark entirely. The Anthropos, the genomic core of human identity, is already divine, already connected to the divine spark that is both Goddess and Earth-based. It is already in harmony with the benign and generous Originator that dreams and emerges through all that exists.

Upon closer examination, non-dualism is another strategy…a lofty view that holds material reality as inferior and illusory. It is the mirror image of another aberrant belief...split-source duality, the belief that evil and good can come from the same Source. It is interesting to note that the original meaning of ‘Maya’ is not illusion. It is the appearance of illusion. Bump your head and you will feel it! And the more you try for stillness, the more you will encounter the Life Force…in constant and passion-filled motion. Underneath the quietest landscape the telluric currents of Life are swirling. We can become still to observe it, but we cannot and should not endeavour to distance ourselves from it. This is one of our core errors, the religion of self-reflection, which has been useful, but which we now need a bit less of if we are going to discover our true natures. The world needs less mindfulness and more soulfulness. “The Future of Love”

What I can recommend to you, the Reader, is to start where you are and look objectively at all of your belief systems, sacred cows and cherished pets. Are they really your core structures? Do they feel liberating or stifling? Can you change them, and if so, what would you change to? Ask yourself, really honestly, what your role might be in the repatriation of your humanity to its original intent. How would that look, feel, sound, feel or taste like? Where are you avoiding being embodied? Where do you retreat to when you feel ‘less than’ or shameful, and do you feel weak or inferior when you cannot deal with uncomfortable emotions or challenging people and situations? For your own sake, don’t feel like you have to be supermen or superwomen, and think you ought to be over this or that. Seek out help and counsel if necessary, as we are not designed to operate as closed systems of consciousness.

Love a lot…whatever that might be. Nurture and be nurtured. Fall in love, get and give cuddles, cook and enjoy food, dancing, sunrises, walks on the beach in bare feet, your sensuality…just connect with whomever or whatever and be fully present, fully engaged. To fall in love again and again is not an error. Only not learning and growing from your mistakes leads to error. The future of Love depends on our expression of it, both towards ourselves and outwardly towards others. In actuality, there is no ‘falling’ in love. What falls is our resistance to Love.

Love is always there for the finding, because it always seeks Itself. Soulmates are proof of that. The Garden of Eden is a state of happiness. Happiness is possible to a heart that is open and believes. Gaia is awakening and wanting the best outcome possible for Her children, for all of us. Yes, it will feel like work...hard work, at times. And yes, you will notice more happiness as you shed the skins and the veils fall from your eyes, and the emotional scars heal. Then the Garden will be seen…in all of its glory and sweetness, within and without. I leave you with the lyrics of from this old song, and recommend you have a good dance along with it when you have a chance. “We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion year old carbon, and we got to get ourselves back to the garden.” – Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (Woodstock)In Love,IsaacLinks:Finding Love - Part 1Finding Love - Part 2: "The Purpose of Attraction" Isaac offers spiritual counseling sessions worldwide via Skype and is available in person in Cork City and West Cork, Ireland.

To make an appointment contact Isaac via email: archariel@hotmail.com, or call in Ireland: 00353 (0)870 978204. In the United Kingdom call: 0044 (0)7875 123406.